DE 10 2010 009 648 A1 discloses a method for determining a rotational speed of a driveshaft of an internal combustion engine, which method is intended to permit a drive pinion of a starter device to be engaged in the internal combustion engine which is said to be coasting. Such methods serve in particular to generate a precise prediction for the rotational speed profile in a rotational speed range of the driveshaft of the internal combustion engine of above 30 revolutions per second. Below the rotational speed of 30 revolutions per minute the driveshaft can change its rotational direction and therefore “swing back” (rotational pendulum). As a result of this “swinging back” the rotational speed usually changes repeatedly from positive to negative and again to positive and possibly once more to negative rotational speeds in order to approach the stationary state earlier or later.
It is provided to present a method with which suitable points in time are determined in order to engage a drive pinion in the ring gear of the internal combustion engine during this swinging back.